Friday, 1 March 2013

Zaftig to Aspie is a remarkable memoir of a remarkable life.
The richly evocative descriptions of an ostensibly idyllic, hippy childhood
slowly succumbing to the vagaries of lust, greed, and jealousy are gripping
from the start; when you realise they are mirrored by the author's own
struggles first at school, then with her family and finally with the
realisation of her own autism they become both poignant and significant.

Growing up 'indulged' and 'showered with loving attention', enjoying a gentle
innocence in which the smell of marijuana evokes memories of 'peaceful happy
childhood moments', the young D.J. Kirkby is nevertheless overwhelmed by such
simple things as the antics of skunk kittens, so much so that 'tears welled in
my eyes until they

brimmed and ran down my cheeks'; she finds herself unable to
cope with the playground noise of the children at her new school; she is a girl
who weeps uncontrollably at her father's wedding not out of any sense of
sorrow, but in response to the deep sensory overload of the emotions invoked by
such an occasion.

At times, the confusion of her over-sensitive perceptions
seems almost akin to synaesthesia. The writing style is flowing and engaging,
punctuated intermittently with poetry and with a neat line in understatement
and self-deprecation. I can recommend this book unreservedly - it is a personal
story with important echoes for society general. As the author herself says:
"Everyone struggles sometimes but what matters is the attitude you have about
it. If you want to get on and do things and are willing to work at it, then you
will succeed."